Israel’s Impact on the Middle East, 1948-98: Year In Review 1998

Whereas the Western world regarded the creation of Israel in May 1948 as a triumph for humanity--the righting for Jews of the terrible wrong of the Holocaust--Israel’s Arab neighbours saw the event as a catastrophe. The argument of the early Zionist leaders that the Jews, through their enterprise and skill, would bring the benefits of modernization to the Palestinian Arabs was not accepted by the latter. They did not think they needed such help, and they feared the usurpation of their ancestral homeland by foreigners who were supported by the major powers--the United States and the Soviet Union in particular. ... (100 of 972 words)